Dark Shadows
by Midnight's Angelic Guardian
Summary: *One-Shot* Thoughts of Ron at some point after graduation from Hogwarts, though it isn't really specified exactly how many years after. I don't really know what to say, just read and review please.


Dark Shadows 

By: PhoenixStar 

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Harry Potter or any of its related characters, events, settings, objects, or other affiliated materials. They are the property of J.K Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Inc., Warner Brother's Inc., and Raincoast Books (I think that's the other publisher? Correct me if I'm wrong.) I only own the particular thoughts and original events I created for this story. 

Author's Note: I realize that Ron might seem a bit OOC in this. Please forgive me. I wanted to get down what he might feel at some point in the future. Please, feel free to read and review, even complain. Just please, do it in a constructive fashion. I have no use for reviews saying things like 'You suck.' They're a waste of my time and energy. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. --PhoenixStar 

Ever since I was a child, I've felt that there was nothing for me to do. Everything notable that I could possibly have accomplished was already done. That's what happens when you're the youngest of six brothers. At least Ginny had an advantage, being the only girl. I was the youngest boy and there was nothing notable left for me. Bill had been Head Boy, and oldest. Charlie was Quidditch Captain and noteworthy student. Percy was Head Boy and studious scholar. Fred and George were the pranksters, always the headache of our mother, with their tricks. But they still pulled good marks. What was left for me? 

All my life I've lived in someone else's shadow. Whether it was my family or my friends, I've never been recognized for myself. 

School didn't change that, as I thought it would. I felt, when I got my letter, 'Finally. I can meet new people, who won't judge me on what my family has been. I can make my own way and show that I'm good at something too.' But even that dream was shattered. 

No, at school, I'm 'Harry Potter's Best Friend.' The loyal sidekick, just along for the ride. It's gotten even worse now. Harry, Hermione and I defeated Voldemort, as most everyone expected us to. It was a private battle. Harry had decided to go off on his own and track Voldemort down. Of course, what he didn't know, was that Hermione and I followed him. 

He was angry when he found us behind him, but we refused to go back to the school. And it was a good thing we were so stubborn. When Harry reached Voldemort, he would have been killed if it weren't for Hermione and I. Hermione actually delivered the killing blow to Voldemort. I wasn't very surprised once I thought about it. After all, she is the most powerful witch I've ever met, and she's studied everything there is about the Killing Curse. 

Harry, though, was shocked. I think he had gotten so he believed his own press. He thought he was the only one who could possibly defeat Voldemort. He was wrong, and that shocked him more than anything. He only stayed silently shocked for a minute. Soon, he rounded angrily on Hermione. It was the worst fight I had ever seen, and that includes the ones between the three of us and Malfoy, my dad and Malfoy's dad, Snape and Sirius, and even this last one against Voldemort. Harry was needlessly cruel. Never, as long as I live, will I forget his words to Hermione, someone who had always been there for him and who he called his best friend. 

_"What was that for Mudblood?" hissed Harry angrily, his wand pointed toward Hermione. _

Hermione's eyes went wide and her jaw trembled as she tried to contain tears at the harsh words Harry had just thrown at her. "Harry, come on, I was helping you!!" 

"Helping? You were interfering!! Just like you always interfere! Meddlesome Mudblood, you're just trying to get the glory for yourself!!! You don't like the idea that someone else would have more credit than you on anything. You don't want to admit that, no matter what marks you get, or how many N.E.W.T.'s you earn, you're just a second-rate, Mudblood and will never be as good as the purebloods!!" 

"Harry..." whispered Hermione, tears filling her voice and trickling out of her eyes as she shrank back in the face of his fury. 

"Voldemort was mine!!! He killed my parents!!!" 

"Harry, calm down. Hermione's your friend." 

"Voldemort was mine Ron. He killed my parents. Everyone knew I was going to kill him. And she stole that from me." 

"Fine Harry," said Hermione, her eyes hardening. "If that's the way you want it, that's the way it'll be." She turned and walked away. 

Once she was gone, no one heard from her for months. Harry took all the credit for the defeat and no one questioned it. I tried to say what had really happened, but Harry told everyone I had been hit on the head after the battle and must be confused. And everyone believed him. After all, he was the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Defeat-Voldemort. 

Hermione showed up at my flat eventually. She was a mess. Her robes were in tatters, her hair was snarled beyond belief and her face was so pale and thin she was barely recognizable. But when she smiled, I knew it was her. Hermione had always had the most radiant smile. It seemed to light up and fill whatever room she was in when she smiled. I took her in and cared for her for a few weeks. Eventually, she was able to tell me where she had gone. Bulgaria, she said, to see Viktor Krum. She had spent two weeks getting back. He was a Death Eater, and had tried to kill her. The only reason she was here now was that someone had found her when she collapsed in the snow somewhere. They helped her, gave her something to regain her strength, and took her here. She hadn't even known whose flat this was until I answered the door. 

Of course, as things go, she regained her strength after so long, and went along her way. I could tell she was injured by the betrayals she had been issued by people she trusted, but I made sure she knew that I was still here, and would always be here. 

Harry, by this time, had married my sister, cheated on her several times, always persuading her to come back to him, and he made her miserable. Ginny, however, would never leave him. She couldn't, she was far too infatuated with him. She had never gotten over her schoolgirl crush, because he never let her. He always gave her just enough hope to keep her interested. The world wasn't surprised when he married her, which, I'm sure, is why he did it. 

I'm rather disappointed with what has happened since we all finally became mature enough to think we could make our own decisions. It recently came out that Viktor Krum had not only tried to kill Hermione, but had raped her as well. Hermione disappeared again when that information appeared in public, by way of the always-nasty Rita Skeeter. I got a letter from her yesterday. She married Snape. Apparently they're very happy together, and have been together since our seventh year. I must say, that's the only thing that has happened that I'm pleased about. They both deserve to be happy, they've been through so much. 

I see my sister only rarely, but every time I do, she looks worse. She's pale, wan, and clearly unhappy. She's dangerously thin, and I'm worried that she's not going to do anything about it until she wastes away completely. She drinks far too much, smokes continuously, and never takes care of herself. 

Harry seems content when I pass him in society or at family functions. I take care to avoid him as much as possible, because I feel that he has violated me almost as much as Hermione, if in a different way. He's cheerful, when my sister is depressed, thriving while she is dieing. He is obvious in his affairs, not even trying to hide them from anyone, but everyone accepts them. 

I'm merely existing. I don't think you can call my mechanical routines living. I go through my days in a scheduled manner, never deviating from it. I have a respectable job in the Ministry of Magic, but I know that isn't what I want to be doing. I remember going through school with nothing else but the goal of playing professional Quidditch. I wanted to get married and have a family. That changed slightly as I grew up, but my goals were basically the same. 

Harry destroyed me more effectively than I think even he knows. And he destroyed me in a way he never contemplated doing it. He killed me when he married my sister. You see, I loved him. I was in love with Harry James Potter. And he rejected me, married my sister, and proceeded to destroy her and everything else I loved. But the worst part? Not that he destroyed everything. No, the worst part is that despite everything he has done, despite the horrors he's inflicted on everyone... 

I still love him. 


End file.
